Standby: where are we now?

Alan Meier, International Energy Agency

Keywords

standby power, electricity consumption, appliances, measurement, end-use, electronics, residential, commercial, "lopomo" (low power modes)

Abstract

Organised efforts to measure and reduce standby power use have been under way for about a decade. Recent measurements of homes in developed countries show that standby ranges from 60 to 110 W per home, which corresponds to about 4-11% of residential electricity use. Standby in most European homes lies between 50 W and 70 W, with countries such as Denmark at the higher end and Greece at the lower end. Some evidence suggests that these levels have risen rapidly in the past few years as a result of purchases of computers, set-top boxes, and digital appliances. Few data exist for commercial or industrial buildings but standby may be as much as 0.7 W/m 2 of floor area. About ten voluntary programmes to reduce standby are under way around the world. Three mandatory programmes to limit standby are already scheduled to go into force in 2006-2008, with others likely to follow. A horizontal standard limiting standby in all products would appear to be the most sensible policy but the rising energy use in other low-power modes must also be addressed.